Heat applied transfers include a variety of indicia with inks, material layers, and adhesives that become bonded to material layers, for example, apparel such as shirts, jackets, or the like, upon pressurized contact and heating of the transfers and apparel between press platens. Graphic images and lettering may generally be accurately and quickly transferred to the apparel without bleeding or partial interruptions in the bonding of the transfer, as long as the presses can be operated at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined time and at a predetermined pressure.
The presses must be able to accommodate many variations in the arrangement of transfers and apparel, as well as the types of transfers and apparel materials available. Moreover, the presses must accommodate a wide variety of temperatures, pressures, and time intervals associated with application of indicia to a garment. Due to the need for flexibility and economic factors, presses have traditionally been manually operated, i.e., they rely on a user (e.g., an operator) to control at least (a) the force applied through the platens and (b) the length of time the force is applied with a mechanical apparatus.
The accuracy and precision of the temperature, the pressure and the time duration for which these parameters are applied to the transfers are particularly important to complete an efficient bonding of the transfers to materials, and are difficult to accomplish in an accurate and repeatable manner. In particular, depending upon materials and the structure of the indicia to be applied to the apparel, indicia may be subject to inconsistent application conditions throughout the surface of apparel to which the transfer is applied. For example, the application of excessive pressure between the platen pressing surfaces may cause bleeding of the colors, while insufficient pressure may result in blotched or unattached areas where the indicia failed to adhere completely to the garment.
Some basic controls have been employed more recently in some presses, e.g., a timer or sensor to detect an amount of time or magnitude of an applied force, respectively. However, these controls have not solved the essential difficulty of controlling the time or pressure under which heat is actually applied to a garment. For example, difficulties in adjusting timing or pressure settings tends to encourage operators to avoid adjustments even for garments where such adjustments are critical, e.g., between stages of a process where different pressures or timing is needed. Additionally, press operators may tend to go by their “feel”, given their experience, to apply an appropriate amount of pressure. Moreover, there is often a lack of consistency with the same press operator, let alone differences between different presses and press operators.
Known presses are typically relatively large and heavy, and thus operators typically will mount the presses on large tables or stands. Even as presses have become smaller and in some cases more portable, known press stands remain bulky in order to provide adequate stability for the press.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved press for applying a platen to adhere graphic images or foils to textiles or substrates with a more consistent and repeatable force that facilitates easy adjustments. Additionally, there is a need for an improved press that applies a given force accurately over multiple time intervals. Moreover, there is a need for an improved press that allows accurate application of a force and/or time interval, while also allowing variation of the force and/or time.